Gardening: what do I do with Coconut Husks?

[Veek M]

So I made a lot of stupid mistakes that were very painful to recover from:
1. I put pots on the terrace and filled it with mud - stains the wall, low yield.
2. I put Zinc sheets+pots in the mud as a barrier - attracts rats - mud binds to everything, leaves get in - difficult to sweep.

Now I'm about to make another mistake: coconut husks - I have a large collection. What should I do with them?

My head is telling me 'HugelKulture' which is a fancy word for burying timber in mud - the wood rots creating airs-spaces for the roots of a vegetable bed which is built on top of the wood.. (but you need a lot of compost).. coconut husks take a long time to rot.. and it's a lot of work removing them if it flops..

I could set them on fire or turn them into charcoal but polluting/anti-social

I tried putting them in a Sintex tank with water and tried to make coco-peat .. now I have to clean out that Sintex so.. they do this in Bengal where it rains incessantly but I live in BLR so..

this guy actually used husks

Building a tropical Hugelkultur-style bed: step by step

Thanks to our last WWOOF volunteer, Hannah, I am able to present a step-by-step photo tutorial of how we built our Hugelkultur-inspired garden beds! The initial one has been planted for about 6 wee…

nidulari.com

 

[Dr.Lakshay]

You could use 20% coconut husk in any and every pot/soil you use without worrying about it. It retains water just right and helps create some air pockets too. But don't use big pieces. Ideally I would say they should be chopped to small pieces (of around 1-2cm cube each).

 

[Veek M]

well I'm resting now after hugule-ing the culture

 

[Chaos]

If you don't wish to use soil, use coco peat. You can buy it at most nurseries. Its a good draining medium and plants thrive in it. Else you can continue using the same soil. Just put them on a stand and put a tray underneath the stand to collect the waste water.

I'm not sure if plants will grow in coconut husk. Its not a well draining medium.

 

[blr_p]

My head is telling me 'HugelKulture' which is a fancy word for burying timber in mud - the wood rots creating airs-spaces for the roots of a vegetable bed which is built on top of the wood.. (but you need a lot of compost).. coconut husks take a long time to rot.. and it's a lot of work removing them if it flops..

Do it, sounds interesting

Hügelkultur - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Never heard of this before

Permaculture is a set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience.

There has to be a tradition of doing this thing here.

What is the Indian term for this

 

[Veek M]

There has to be a tradition of doing this thing here.
What is the Indian term for this

Dunno we have 28 states each will have a term..

 

[skoka123]

The easiest thing to do is to use it as brown matter in your compost pile.